Work in 2007
Updated on Saturday, 15 December 2007
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Quarterly Staff Report for April - June 2007 by Sergei Grushko and Claire Jewkes http://www.bym-rsf.org/quakers/news/moscow.shtml Contents 1. Diabetes Handbook for Pensioners in Georgia 2. AVP Odessa 3. Art Therapy at Raduga 4. Therapeutic Drama Workshops at the Kozelsk Orphanage-Internat 5. Molly Bown Legacy for Needy Children 1. Save a Child 2. Art Therapy at the Dzerzhinsk Family Crisis Centre 3. Alternativshchik Newsletter 1. AVP Odessa 2. AVP Russia 3. Training Student Mediators in Secondary Schools Relocation Contacts with Organizations and Individuals Quaker Meetings and Outreach News
European and Middle East Young Friends Spring Gathering Woodbrooke-on-the-Road at Moscow Monthly Meeting Interviews for International Membership for Friends in Tbilisi
Top of page Return to Welcome page
New Projects for 2007 (approved at the June Executive Committee) 1. Diabetes Handbook for Pensioners in Georgia
Right: view of the old Georgian capital of Djvali near Tbilisi 2. AVP Odessa The Odessa Mediation Group will continue to arrange workshops with a range of state and private organisations such as children’s homes, prisons, social support agencies and schools. The new project should benefit from 100 to 130 students, school workers, juvenile offenders and prisoners. Collaborative work on the AVP Russian language website and a joint Training for Trainers workshop with facilitators from Moscow will further strengthen ties between the AVP communities in Russia and Ukraine, a priority shared by AVP Russia and AVP Odessa. 3. Art Therapy at Raduga
Left: Irina Molchanova teaches a lesson on dried flower composition at Raduga Art therapy classes assist the development of fine motor skills, coordination and aesthetic appreciation. The classes will be taught by qualified teachers – the flower art teacher is in fact an ecologist – who have both taught at Raduga for a number of years. Many of the children at Raduga do not attend school and others cannot lead an independent life after leaving school. The social sphere of these young people is consequently very narrow. For families without the means to pay for services and activities for their children, activities centres like Raduga are one of the few places where young people with learning disabilities can find emotional support, an opportunity for socialisation and activities to help them develop skills. During her internship Claire has volunteered at the Raduga Centre. For photographs and a full report of the work of the centre please visit http://j-claire.livejournal.com 4. Therapeutic Drama Workshops for Children at the Kozelsk Orphanage-Internat This project seeks to develop children’s creativity, imagination, self expression and self esteem through a series of drama and performance workshops, to be led by ten students from the Moscow Art Theatre School for a group of 40 children at the orphanage. The student leaders have trained with Cazimir Liske and Svetlana Olshanskaya, who have previously conducted therapeutic youth theatre in the city of Mostar, Bosnia and Herzogovina.
Right: Moscow Art Theatre students teach children at Kozelsk a traditional Russian song and dance.
5. Molly Bown Legacy for Needy Children In May staff and board received the heart-warming news that five project applications have been accepted by the Molly Bown Legacy. The following organisations and individuals will receive funding for three years: 1. Krug (Circle) Day Centre for Children with Disabilities: The centre works to improve society’s perception of children with learning disabilities by running a theatre studio and master classes for up to 160 children with special needs. In 2009 they will also take part in the street theatre festival in Moscow. 2. Centre for Adaptation and Education for Children of Refugees and Forced Migrants: The centre offers lessons in English, Russian, Mathematics and various cultural activities to 7-17 year olds from Chechnya, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and other CIS countries. As a rule Russian is not a native language for these students, and most have been out of schooling for some time. Most of them have suffered loss of relatives in armed conflicts. By offering education in a safe social environment the centre helps the students to adapt to a different cultural environment, begin to overcome their psychological traumas, and increase their prospects of entering higher education.
3. Big Change Educational Fund for Orphans:
4. Galya Lopotko for ‘Captains of Destiny’: The ‘Captains of Destiny’ project will work with children in Moscow care homes using AVP style exercises. The project will seek to cultivate a more responsible, caring and spiritual attitude among the children, which, starting from a small group and gradually introducing new participants, will penetrate into the atmosphere of the care home. 5. Centre for Judicial and Legal Reform: The project will support new restorative justice programmes in Moscow schools, drawing on school reconciliation services in place in many other cities (Moscow, Kazan, Novgorod, Lysva, Perm, Tomsk, Volgograd). Additionally, in the city of Kazan the centre aims to create a permanent municipal reconciliation service to coordinate mediation procedures with the courts. This project will receive funding for only one year. Top of page Return to Welcome page (approved at the July Executive Committee and the November General Board Meeting 2006) 1. Save a Child The principal aim of the project is to create a website to attract donations to allow children to undergo operations and receive treatment for life limiting medical conditions. The project commenced in June and aims to raise public awareness in Dzerzhinsk of the need to make effective but expensive medical treatments available to ordinary people. Last month a fundraising rock concert entitled The Darker Side of Chil dhood was held in the city for two thousand people. The domain name of the site was registered, payment made for web hosting and progress made on web design. Public interest in this cause last year was triggered by the distressing story of Alina Zhatkina, a two-year old girl in need of treatment for a severe form of cerebral palsy to enable her to walk and move freely. Last summer her story was published in the local newspaper and local social organisations organised fund raising events, which allowed her to undergo treatment. Andrei Tumanov, the organiser of ‘Save a Child,’ has reported that Alina will be able to complete her course of bone marrow transplants which will give her a chance of a normal life, thanks to agreement from doctors at the Moscow Medical Technologies Institute to lower the price of treatment to a bare minimum so that Alina can receive treatment. Alina has also been taken to the Black Sea for a course of dolphin assisted therapy. Alina’s health has not yet been fully restored after the negligence and professional errors that plagued her in the first years of her life. However, at three years old the doctors are pleased with her progress and report that she has every chance of being able to walk. The English translation of the original article about Alina as it appeared in The Dzerzhinskman last year is now available at http://j-claire.livejournal.com 2. Art Therapy at the Dzerzhinsk Family Crisis Centre An art therapy programme developed at the Nizhny Novgorod Institute of Educational Development commenced at the Family and Law family crisis centre. This project not only works with primary school children, but also publicises the experience of the project in the local media and will share professional experience at the pedagogical university. In April lessons were held for pre-school children and a group of teachers and psychologists from local schools was recruited to be trained in art therapy methodology. School and nursery psychologists were also given a three day training course in holding conflict resolution workshops with parents. An exhibition of the children’s artwork was organised at the crisis centre and local journalists invited to attend. 3. Alternativshchik Newsletter Since the first issue of Alternativshchik was released in November 2006, circulation has expanded beyond the group of alternative servicemen working at the Kazan gunpowder factory. In February contact was successfully established with those working in Nizhny Tagil, a city on the Asian side of the Ural Mountains, who continue to receive the newsletter on a regular basis. In April the newsletter was sent to alternative servicemen in Kirov, a city just west of the Urals. In June, project organiser German Alyotkin met with alternative servicemen in Cheboksary in central European Russia and circulation of the newsletter was begun in Izbezh, a city in the Western Urals. There are approximately 850 young men serving the alternative national service in Russia. Of these, approximately 130 people now regularly receive the newsletter.
Top of page Return to Welcome page
(approved at the November General Board Meeting 2006 and the March Executive Committee 2007) 1. AVP Odessa During the first half of 2007 the Odessa Region Mediation Group has expanded and consolidated its work in conflict resolution with teenagers and young adults. Basic workshops were held with young offenders in the Odessa Investigatory Isolation Centre, which was followed by a news item on local television about AVP work with prisoners. Facilitators are encouraged by the effect the training has had on the prisoners and report that there could be potential facilitators among the prisoners. There were many workshops held for conflict prevention in schools, including in two Odessa children’s homes. AVP Odessa has also conducted workshops with psychologists in the city and presented at a conference on conflict resolution in schools, which was attended by representatives from other cities in southern Ukraine. AVP Odessa has recently translated the AVP youth manual from English into Russian, which will prove essential in their work with teenagers in schools and children’s homes. Extending the geographical region of AVP activity in Ukraine, basic workshops were held in Simferopol, Crimea and in Lviv, Western Ukraine. 2. AVP Russia
Throughout the project workshops were held at pedagogical universities, with members of the public, and with military conscripts. Regrettably, relations with the new link personnel officer made holding regular workshops in the army problematic. Facilitators from Moscow also began workshops at a new site, a vocational school in the town of Korolev near Moscow. The workshops were warmly received and AVP Russia intends to continue at the school. Facilitators in Dzerzhinsk have recently written an article about AVP workshops in the town. Transforming Power Saves a Russian Town from Violence is now available in English on the AVP Russia website at http://avp.inrussia.org/lib-transforming.htm 3. Training Student Mediators in Secondary Schools
The project sought to identify school administrations in the Moscow area interested in introducing peer mediation programmes into their schools. Promotional seminars with the local education authority and introductory training for teachers have led to the signing of contracts with two schools in Moscow. The mediation training programmes for students will commence at the start of the next academic year and will be funded by the International League for Protection of Human Dignity and Safety.
Top of page Return to Welcome page
The second of 2007 quarter has been a busy three months for staff, particularly in the area of gatherings and outreach work. Here are a few developments to note at Friends House Moscow: Relocation
In August, Friends House Moscow will be moving to a new
The task of finding new premises has required great attentiveness from staff as we strove to balance the ideal of a Friends House – a place in a convenient location that is peaceful, welcoming and open to all – with our other financial obligations and with the constraints of the Moscow real estate market and current political situation for NGOs in Russia. Finally we proposed renting a European standard office block close to the centre of Moscow. Two members of the international board visited the proposed office and reported to the EC in June, when the recommendation of the staff was gratefully accepted. The new location is in an attractive modern building next to the metro in a commercial and business district of Moscow. Friends House Moscow will now be able to publicise its legal address and display the sign of our Russian registration – the social organisation Dom Druzei v Moskve – in a public place. Friends House Moscow staff and board would like to acknowledge their heartfelt thanks to two British Friends for making this step possible with their kind and generous donation towards the cost of the new premises. We are confident that the move will allow Friends House Moscow to become a more visible presence in Moscow and therefore better known to local people. Contacts with Organizations and Individuals
On 27 June Claire attended a Student Graduation Day at
Big Change. In June Claire visited Elektrostal to meet with Nalalya Fedorchenko who is the director of the Phoenix School – a private school for children aged 7-17 years. The school, which teaches the national curriculum, also teaches an additional curriculum of emotional literacy, relaxation games, circle time and other activities to support and strengthen the programme of peer mediation and parent-teacher, teacher-student and group conferences operating in the school. These activities were consolidated as Natalya studied at Woodbrooke after becoming the Eva Koch scholar for 2006. Though the educational successes of the school have been gratefully felt by pupils and parents, the financial situation of the school is very uncertain at this time. Natalya’s article Let Our Lives Speak is published in The Woodbrooke Journal, No.20, Spring 2007.
Top of page Return to Welcome page
European and Middle East Young Friends Spring Gathering
Woodbrooke-on-the-Road at Moscow Monthly Meeting On 21-22 April Julia Ryberg, Woodbrooke’s European project coordinator, held a Woodbrooke-on-the-Road event for Moscow Monthly Meeting. The two-day course focused on the strengths and weaknesses of the meeting, its aspirations and spiritual resources. Particular questions were focused on what the meeting had to offer new seekers and attenders. Of the strengths of the meeting all participants were in agreement about the meeting’s capacity to help and support its members in times of need. Interviews for International Membership for Friends in Tbilisi
DD staff Peter Dyson and Sergei Grushko travelled to
Tbilisi with Julia Ryberg to conduct interviews for international membership
on behalf of
FWCC International Membership Committee.
The hope of the group to become a recognised worship group and ultimately a monthly meeting was strongly brought forward. As such, the representatives of FWCC invested much time in guidance on Quaker ordering and understanding of leadership, laying the groundwork for further learning and eldership. The visitors were encouraged by the natural and non-domineering way in which the two informal leaders work, both with each other and serving the group. Visitors came away with the feeling of having witnessed a true grass-roots community and the impression of an eagerness and thirst for learning that may reflect that of the early Friends. You can find an account of how things seemed to a member of the International Board in May 2007 here Top of page Return to Welcome page
Friends House Moscow Staff Quarterly Report by Sergei Grushko and Natasha Zhuravenkova * * * FHM Activities:
The structural order in this report has changed a bit. This time we are reporting about FHM activities first. The reason is quite important – the relocation of the office. This event influenced a lot on the work of the organisation. Relocation In August, Friends House Moscow moved to a new office. It was not a simple thing, but we have a result – it is a European standard office situated in a convenient location, peaceful, welcoming and open to all. This event had an immediate consequence – now the office is used seven days a week by us, our project partners, different social and religious groups for their workshops, seminars, meetings and other activities.
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Project News: 1. Alternatives to Violence Project [AVP] - Russia AVP Russia continues successful work having three main centres of their activity – Moscow, Lipetsk and Dzerzhinsk (Nizny Novgorod region). Moscow: Now that we have a new office, AVP can use it for their purposes. In July a workshop with soldiers was held (in a military unit, of course, not in our office!). In August a Training for Trainers was held and in October two one-day workshops were held in the new DD place. Lipetsk: In July a Training for Trainers was held. In September a workshop for children was held. In October the facilitators ran a workshop for students. The theme was “Me and Money”. Dzerzhinsk: In October two basic workshops were held. On the 20th of October the General Conference of Russian speaking AVP facilitators was held. Seventeen people from Russia and Ukraine took part in it. 2. Alternatives to Violence Project [AVP] - Ukraine
A group of facilitators in L’vov ran several basic workshops in the local university who learn social work. The new facilitators took part in holding one-day workshops in a local prison for young offenders. The AVP facilitators presented the project on the Christian Prison Service Conference in Donetsk (Ukraine). 3. ‘Alternativshchik’ Newsletter German Alyotkin, the coordinator from Kazan, published three issues of the ‘Alternativshchik’, newsletter for a Russian COs. The copies of the newsletter were distributed in six regions among the alternative service conscripts. Among the problems of the project German notices the passiveness of the readers, - they are interested in reading the articles, but do not volunteer to write them. German continues to find new contacts with the groups of people who want to get it on a regular basis. The newsletter contains articles about the laws on alternative national service, activities of alternative servicemen across Russia, alternative national service and CO issues in other countries and articles about pacifism.
4. Save a Child In October Andrei Tumanov, the coordinator of the project (is running in Nizhny Novgorod region), negotiated with local businessmen about information support of the project. 5. ‘Nash Dom’ (Our House) The project started on the 1st of September. Inmates of the orphanage No.8 (Moscow) and children from the foster families were interviewed and involved into a series of workshops focusing on the participants’ hopes, plans and personal interests. The psychological consultations were offered for the foster parents. All the children joined the introductory sessions aimed at an improvement of memory, logic and concentration, a development in the skills of planning and knowing how to behave, the personal growth of the children and an increase in their communication skills. 6. Big Change During the academic year 2007-2008, educational support will be offered to 60 pupils – current and former inmates of orphanages. Lessons started on the 10th September, by that time classrooms had been renovated and several new teachers joined the project. Pupils had an opportunity to discuss their summer experiences at the XVI Student Conference on 29th September. October 1st was the 5th anniversary of Big Change. 7. Educational Support for Refugee Children The centre started working again after the summer break on the 15th of September. The work includes: testing of new students, individual lessons with pupils and a psychological help, a work on finding new volunteers (publishing announcements and interviews) and holding teacher training seminar for the Centre's volunteers (on the 20-21st October). A website for the Centre was created and developed www.refugee.ru/kids. 461 lessons were held with children, aimed at adapting those to school life and developing motivation. An increase in the level of motivation and interest can be noticed among many pupils, and specific academic individual tasks have been completed by each pupil. This school year the Centre will work on a full basis four days of the week - now on Saturdays too.
The Third All-Russian “Proteatr” Festival of Special Theatres took place on 24-30 September. The “Proteatr” project helps to resolve the problem of disabled people, who are excluded from general cultural processes, and promotes the integration of these people into society. The high level of participants in the festival allowed a large amount of people to take part in the events of the festival. Information about the festival was given on the radio, TV and newspapers, the advertising posters were put up around Tverskaya ulitsa. The festival helped to form contacts and ways of cooperation between organisations working on the issues of special art. Thanks to the cultural programme (some children were in Moscow for their first time) the participants of the festival enriched their cultural lives.
9. Supporting
Reconciliation Procedures in Schools The work on the project started on October. The work takes place in two cities – Moscow and Kazan. Rustem Maksudov, the coordinator, infoms that the team for shooting a film about reconciliation procedures in schools was created. He presented ideas and technology of the project to the Headmasters of schools. 10. The publication of a diabetes handbook in Georgian DD supported the publication of a diabetes handbook in Georgian in the sum of $310. 400 copies of the book were published in August. The activists of the diabetes organisation distributed them among those who need. The book was written by doctors and contains useful information for diabetics. Outreach News and Quaker Contacts: In September DD staff Peter Dyson and Sergei Grushko took part in EMES Travelling in the Ministry residential gathering where a group of Friends discussed resources and components in support of Travelling, Outreach and Nurturing.
In this period we had many Quaker and non-Quaker visitors. Among them we can mention Mary Morris, Patricia Cockrell, John and Valerie Imber (Britain); Sasha Gorbenko, Inna Polukhova, Viktor Vekselman (Moscow Monthly Meeting); Yuri Komarov, Dima Alekseev, Zhenya Uvarova (Moscow Quaker Group). Pat Stewart from Philadelphia helped us prepare documents in English. Greg Holt, a young Quaker from the States, has been working as an intern for a month. Since August Natasha Zhuravenkova (Moscow Monthly Meeting) had started her work as a new DD staff member. The translation of the British Quaker Faith and Practice continues. One more chapter was translated during this period. An e-book with searching system was created on the Russian text. Since August we have posted five sets of Quaker materials to the seekers in different places of Russia and former Soviet Union. Also our visitors at DD office took some booklets and brochures and purchased Quaker greeting-cards and badges. Grant Writing: This quarter DD had the first successful experience in writing (and getting) grants for our projects. The ‘Training Conscripts in Effective Interpersonal Conflict Resolution’ project application which was written for AVP Russia was accepted by the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO). The project is intended to get AVP work into military units. It will start in November.
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Children educated
in boarding schools under the auspices of their care homes are on average
two to three years behind their contemporaries. The project at Big
Change will offer educational support for children in adoptive families,
who may have additional trouble adjusting to their new family. In the
first year teachers of various subjects will give private lessons to four
teenagers being raised in adoptive families. In the following years
more teenagers will join the project.
A
key success of this six month AVP project was its work in regions outside
the Russian Federation. In addition to supporting the many advances of AVP
work in Ukraine, an advanced workshop was also held in Vilnius, Lithuania.
AVP facilitators in Vilnius are inexperienced in running workshops at the
advanced level and the workshop was well attended by facilitators seeking to
better understand the exercises.
office
as our landlady has decided that the time has come to put the flat which
houses the current office on the market. At the Executive Committee in
March, members of the international governing board were advised about price
and availability of alternative accommodation by senior staff member Sergei
Grushko and after detailed discussion conceded that Friends House Moscow
is not able to buy a property to function as both legal office and
living space at this time and laid down a list of guidelines for staff as to
the kind of office and staff accommodation to be sought. [pictured:
Natasha and Sergei, staff members]
The
applicants, who are attenders at the informal Tbilisi worship group, placed
emphasis on the importance of community in Quakerism as a potent instrument
for doing God’s work. They viewed the absence of liturgy and
demonstrations of institutional wealth in Quakerism as particularly relevant
to a country with widespread poverty and damaged social welfare structures,
and sought a faith expressed primarily through direct social witness.
Further, the open, democratic structure of the Religious Society of Friends,
particularly the equal role of women within it, was seen as a liberating
alternative to the Orthodox Church.
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8. Rehabilitation
for Children with Special Needs